Compositions of matter and methods



Patented June 5, 1945 COMPOSITIONS F MATTER AND METHODS AND STEPS OF MAKING AND US ING THE SAME Mortimer '1'. Harvey, South Orange, N. .L, assignor to The Harvel New Jersey I Corporation, a corporation of No Drawing. ,/i)riginal application September 1,

1939, Se al No. 293,057. Divided and this appllcation 3 Claims.

The present invention relates to new aryl-alkyl sulphonic acids and to methods of making the same, and the present invention relates more particularly to sulphonicaclds derived from phenols having unsaturated hydrocarbon substituents on the nucleus thereof and to methods for preparing them.

The present application is a division of my copending application Serial Number 293,057, filed September 1, 1939, which matured into Patent No. 2,324,300, July 13, 1943, which is a continuation in part of m copending application Ser. No. 174,662 filed November 15, 1937, which matured into Patent No. 2,317,607 April 2'7, 1943.

The sulphonic acids of the present invention are suitable for general use where such compounds are used and are particularly suited as detergents and wetting agents and for allied p rposes.

Examples of ethers suitable for use in the practice of the present invention are the alkyl ethers of cashew nut shell liquid and cardanol and preferably those ethers in which the alkyl radicals in ether relation have from one to five carbons and which preferred ethers include the primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl-ethers of the above named phenols.

In the illustrative example given herein the temperature of reaction given may be below that of the melting point oithe pure phenolic ether used but it is a temperature at which the commercial grade of product will be in a liquid state.

Reference is hereby made to Harvey Patent Number 2,098,824, of November 9, 1937, for a disclosure 01' the composition of cashew nut shell liquid and itseonstituents and also of cardanol. Following are illustrative examples of the methods and products of the present invention.

Example l -substantially equal parts by weight of concentrated sulphuric acid and\oi the ethyl ether of cashew nut shell liquid are heated togather at about 110' C. for about size hour after e 5, 1943, Serial No. 489,815

which the reaction mass is chilled and the sulphuric acid and,water layer is separatedirom the reaction product layer which latter is neutralized to the point of being slightly acid and then fil-' tered. The filtrate is evaporated to dryness to obtain the solid product.

oi the propyl ether-oi cardanol and oi sulphuric Example 2.-Substantially equal parts by weigh \$0 acid, concentrated, are handled in the same manner as in Example lto obtain the sulphonic. acid of propyl ether oi cardanol.

Example 3.-About one hundred parts by weight each of the ethyl ether oi cardanol and 01 concentrated sulphuric acid were heated together at about C. for about forty minutes (twenty to sixty minutes) after which the mass was cooled, the unreacted sulphuric acid and water poured oil. The sulphonic acid was then dissolved in water, being completely soluble, and neutralized with sodium hydroxide. The precipitated sodium sulphate was filtered, the sodium salt of the sulphonic acid of the ethyl ether of cardanol being completely soluble in the water and going with the filtrate. Y General example-Marking nut shell liquid and urushiol and ethers thereof can be used in the methods of Examples 1 to 3, inclusive, to obtain similar sulphonic acids.

As is common to sulphonic acids the exact constitution of the final product is unknown and the amount or degree of sulphonation can be controlled by varying the amount of sulphuric acid used in the sulphonation process and this can be from about one molecular equivalent to about five molecular equivalents oi sulphuric acid to each mole of aryl compound used, for example, but these proportions are not considered limiting, except in a practical way to obtain desirable yield of a desired product.

The new compounds of the present invention including the sulphonic acids described and illustrated by examples are useful generally where sulphonic acids are used and are particularly altable in the wetting and detergency oi. tex- Although different methods of handling the reagent materials in bringing them together and in handling the reaction products to remove from the reaction mass are described in the above ex amples this is to be considered as illustratin rather than limiting.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A sulphonic acid of an alkyl ether of a material selected irom the group consisting oi. cardanol and cashew nut shell liquid.

2.1 A sulphonic acid of an alkyl ether of cardno I s. a sulphonic acid of an alkyl ether or cashew nut shell liquid.

NORM T. HARVEY. 

